Delegating Work, Effectively

Delegation is a skill – skills can be learned – skills improve with practice and feedback. If you’re going to build a significant practice you’ll need to build a team around you. You’ll need to work effectively with others including peers, junior associates, law clerks and staff. Some people delegate effectively and efficiently and others don’t.

After the recent conference of the Institute of Law Clerks of Ontario we asked the following questions:

How might partners delegate more effectively?

How might young lawyers, just starting out, learn to delegate early in their career?

What are the common mistakes lawyers make when delegating assignments?

What behaviours bring out the best in you?

What are your stories about the best practices when it comes to delegation?

From their responses and from my own
experiences the following is critical tips list for
delegating work effectively.

Get to know the people on your team,
their skills, experience and capability as
well as their goals so you can give them
exposure to stretch engagements. Associates development is critical to
nurturing and retaining the firm’s future
partners, however, there are times when a
law clerk can deliver the work quickly,
efficiently and cost effectively for the
client. Partnering junior associates with
senior law clerks on a client team may
accelerate the associate’s learning curve –
particularly on the nuts and bolts of
document production, affidavits of
documents, court filings and corporate
records administration.

Provide instructions that are clear,
concise and that indicate all critical
dates and timelines. How often do the
engagement leaders in your firm hold
team meetings where all who are involved
in the file get a full briefing on the client
and the matter; tasks are assigned;
everyone knows who is on the team and
who is responsible for what, and the
critical dates? Whether you do this in
writing or in a meeting is likely not
critical. What is important is that
everyone be fully briefed rather than
working on their assignments out of
context.

Remain active in the engagement. In
2006, Ed Wesemann of KermaPartners
wrote an article entitled Hitting the Wall which profiled a lawyer whose annual
revenue was in excess of $10 Million. A
lawyer who generates this level of
practice must be a master at delegation
and communication both with the team
and with the clients. As Ed says,“no
client wants to feel like they are getting
second string” so the partner must remain
active. As well, no associate wants to be
left with responsibility for a matter that is
over his or her head because when
something goes wrong, heads roll.

Keep your door open. In my experience,
everyone working on your file wants to do
the best job they can, both for you and for
the client. Give them the support they
need to accomplish that. As law clerk
Betsy Spencer from Borden Ladner
Gervais LLP in Ottawa said “it’s always
great to work with a lawyer who is
approachable and willing to discuss the
file so that we are working as a team.”

Empower members of your team. “I
think it is important to provide clear
instructions and deadlines as well as the
tools needed to perform the task. Don’t
insult professionals by attempting to
control the way they work. Respect the
way they perform the task as long as they
follow all pertinent legislation, policies
and precedents, respect the instructions
and honour the timelines.” Eileen
Hanley, Supervising Paralegal at Osler,
Hoskin & Harcourt in Montreal.

Provide Timely Feedback. When
colleagues at all levels respect each other
feedback comes naturally. Give kudos in
public and criticize in private. Identify the
problem and tackle the solution together.
Feedback is a critical component to
building capability and human capital. “Feedback delayed is feedback denied.”

Debrief. When a matter has been
completed, take a few minutes with
everyone involved in the engagement to
summarize what was accomplished and
what it meant to the client and what was
learned. Truly successful firms learn
from each engagement and share that
knowledge. They gather the “know how”
developed on the engagement and make it
available through knowledge management
and precedent systems.

Provide recognition and respect. When
asked what behaviours bring out the best
in you? Christina Christie of Borden
Ladner Gervais in Ottawa put it
succinctly: “recognition and respect bring
out the absolute best in me” she said.
How do you show respect? Through
honest communication, fair and timely
feedback, by empowering people, by
making them feel part of a team.

Really talented professionals often evolve in one
of two directions.

First, the Prima Donnas who
work alone or with a revolving team of juniors
who leave as soon as they gain some experience.
They don’t delegate effectively and they “hit the
wall” in terms of the size of practice they can
generate.

The Star Makers, on the other hand,
are those around whom talented professionals
flourish and to whom clients are attracted.

Learning to delegate effectively is one of the
pivotal skills that the Star Makers develop that
puts them well ahead of the Prima Donnas. It’s
your choice.

A word of thanks to the law clerks quoted in this article as well as to Monique Day of Fraser Milner Casgrain in Ottawa and to Sylvia Cheung of Aird & Berlis in Toronto. Everyone provided excellent information for this article. Thank you.

Co-Author - Nick Jarrett-Kerr, a member of Kerma Partners
advises law firms on leadership management
strategy.